Inviting A Forest Into My 2022 Bullet Journal

It’s almost February, and I am happily using my new bullet journal. It took days and days to set up though. This felt like too long to spend on reflecting, planning and drawing. I enjoy this process, but I also get stressed about it. One—it takes a long time. This year it took over two solid weeks. Two—I feel behind. I was well into January before I was fully transitioned to the new bujo and could retire the old one.

For next year, I’m thinking about shifting my annual review to before the holidays. I find the reflection process takes a long time and a lot of focus, so maybe this would ease the bujo transition.

New Bujo

My Notebook Therapy journal only has 176 pages—the fewest of any bullet journal I’ve used. In order to fit six months into this journal, I’ve reduced and condensed spreads as much as possible, as well as adding foldout pages. Spreads that I expect to use all year are in a booklet that slides into the back pocket.

The front and back spreads of my new bullet journal are inspired by its cover. A pattern of bars in different shades of brown and groupings of copper ovals evoke the lines of a forest.

Inside Cover

Inside the front cover, I included a quote from Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead. Reading this book was like having a conversation with a friend who really gets me. It was also inspirational. The quote I used is a reminder to me of this book’s message, as well as how power can be positive and valuable.

“This is the very heart of playing bigger: having the vision of a more authentic, fully expressed free-from-fear you and growing more and more into her, being pulled by this resonant vision…”

Tara Mohr

Index

Hedda from mochibujo inspired me to call my index In This Journal. At the top I listed the six months I expect to be in this journal, and left space to include a palette of colors for each. Below the months I’ll list collections and notes as they’re created. This setup allowed me to cut two pages from my index, as well as the two-page spread I previously used to record my palettes and themes.

Goals

I combined my annual and quarterly goals into one spread. It’s nice to see them all together—the big goals and the smaller steps to achieve them. At the bottom is a wellness tracker where I keep track of weight and measurements. The sticker in the corner was a Christmas gift from my daughter that just happened to match my bujo colors perfectly. Any Avatar/Legend of Korra fans out there know who this guy is? My son helped me out when I couldn’t remember his name :o)

For first quarter goals, I set up a Winter Goals page. I love calling the quarter by the season instead of a number, an idea I copied from Rachael Stephen. I left room on the same page for my first quarter reflection. It’ll be nice to reflect on the quarter with the goals clearly visible on the same page.

Planning

My Blog Planner (above) got condensed to one page, while my Writing Goals and Plans spread uses the same basic layout as last year, adjusted for the new graphic elements.

Datebook

I love the dutch door Datebook I used last year, but at the end of the year I ran out of space. Apparently eight months for recording upcoming events is not enough for a Future Log, especially when you’re running a household. This year my dutch doors are wider, allowing two full spreads to record future events. This gives me eleven months and a column for notes.

I often refer to my Year-At-A-Glance spread throughout the year, so I decided to make it fold out and placed it next to the Datebook. Now I can look at the fold-out from any page in the journal.

In an effort to save journal pages, I attached School Schedules and Ideal Schedules on the back of the Year-At-A-Glance spread with another fold. Between the accordion fold-out and dutch doors this spread has a lot of layers, but so far it’s working well for me.

Booknotes

Last year one page was not enough to list all the books I read, so this year I’m giving myself two pages to record books. Space I don’t use to list books will be filled with quotes.

Back Matter

At the back of the journal, there’s a fold-out with Recurring Events separated into weekly, monthly, and quarterly events.

Inside the back pocket, is the Annual Collections booklet. It includes Grid Spacing, a color Palette, Items of Interest (movies to watch, books to read, classes to take, etc.), MasterClass Log, One-Day Projects (projects and tasks I’d like to complete one day, but I’m not ready to schedule yet), and Birthdays.

Forest

The brown bars and copper ovals throughout these spreads turned out bolder than I imagined they would. I’m still getting used to them. But I’m excited to use my new spreads this year.

Hope your 2022 is getting off to a good start!